It has been around 1 year since we started working on Inc42 and the journey has been quite exciting so far. I have no hesitation in telling that entrepreneurship is best learnt with experiences.
As LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman says:
You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.
“Entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.”
This is so true because you really get focused as the ground is approaching. You are bound to make mistakes when you start and it’s absolutely fine because that’s the best way you can learn more than anything else.
Here are few things that I learn’t through my experiences in the past one year building Inc42.
1) Ideas are crap, Implementation Matters
“Ideas are crap, Implementation Matters”
When we initially started working on Inc42 we used to spend a lot of time on brainstorming ideas. Sadly, they used to end up on paper or lost in the chat box conversations. Also, no point in discussing too many ideas at once. Instead focus on one idea and work on it. Just get into the action and start building. Don’t worry, you can always learn on the go!
2) Nothing is more important than having a perfect team
No matter how brilliant idea you have it’s absolutely useless if you don’t have a proper team. Half your problems are solved if you build a perfect team. Trust me. Also, make sure your team members have complementary skills. If you are a tech startup make sure you have a hacker on your team.
3) Make a daily To-Do list
Often times I used to be lost in a whole ocean of things that I need to work on. Every night just before you go to sleep prepare a To-Do list. Make sure you are practical enough while preparing your To-Do list. There are many mobile apps out there in the market like Any.do which can be really useful to prepare a To-Do list.
4) Identify your most productive time in the day
I strongly suggest every entrepreneur to figure out what’s his/her most productive time of the day and try to schedule all the important works during that time slot. For me, I am normally most productive in the night from 12am- 3am without any distraction. So I tend to schedule all my important work during that time.
5) Make some space for your personal life
It’s always better to take some time away from work and make some space for your personal life. It can be doing something you like, Spending time with your friends, Families. Trust me this will increase your productivity and makes you feel better.
6) “Good Job” will make a lot of difference
Make a habit of appreciating your team members for what ever work they do. It can be as small as telling them “Good Job”, But it’s surely going to make a difference.
7) Organizing your mail box saves you a lot of time and effort
Most of the people spend a lot of time in replying to mails. By setting up as many filters as possible and using email apps like CloudMagic and Mailbox to isolate emails that are relevant to tasks you must accomplish would save you a lot of time and energy. The key is to snooze all of the emails that are not relevant to your work.
